Memories and Flowers
by Mechanical-Assembly
Summary: A simple moment in time. Under a tree he sits and dreams about his lost love. Very sad and a somewhat tear jerking end... If you are a Cloud and Aeries fan.


Wow... This fic was a bit hard to write actually... I wasn't sure how to spell Aeries since I've seen about a million ways... So don't get mad a me please... . ; Next was getting Clouds demenor to fit the scenes... But I really hope I did well. I suppose that maybe you'll review if I did good, ne?  
  
DISCLAIMER: Nope.. I own NOTHING... Well, maybe the actual senario might be mine I suppose.. But everything else is copy write to Square Soft folks....

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Looking around at his surroundings, the young blonde took in the sureal horizon. The sun was setting over the small little hill, sending a light blanket of pink over the browning grass. His sword lay to his left as he sat leaning upon an old worn out tree, listening to the songbirds preform their melodious tunes. The scene looked so peaceful in his eyes, and everything was as it should be. Clouds over head seemed to gracfully float in the endless pink sea, as the sun made one final pass through the trees for the night. The orange and reds mingled with eachother, playing an imaginary tag with the purples of the night's sky.  
  
Cloud's eyes soon began to droop and his figure slowly shifted to the side from fatigue. Drowsiness was creeping upon him delicatly, like a soft silk blanket tucking him in for one last snooze.The songbirds symphonies drifted about his ears like a sorrowful tune, reminding him of past mistakes and long forgotten problems.  
  
Everything soon came flooding backonce his eyes shut He could hear the agonizing screams of the people he could not save and he saw, in his minds eye, the tormentor that stole everything preciouse from him away. The maliciouse green glow of the Mako inhanced man's eyes haunted his dreams, as the silver hair glinted horrific travisties. Cloud growled as he swore to get his revenge on the man, his body coated in a light sweat. He relived all the horrors and tragities alone, in pain, and lost.  
  
He watched, helpless, as whole cities burned to the ground in this man's wake, and heard the agonizing cries of his friends. He whimpered as his tormentor slain the one thing that ment the most to him. With a rumble, Cloud felt the ground open up to swallow him whole as the darkness gathered him in it's embrace. He began to feel the cold numbness of his sorrow and couldn't keep with his uphill battle with emotions. The light in his heart slowly ebed away and tried to fade, when he heard it. The sound was faint, but it slowly rekindled the flame burning in his heart and his warmth began to return...  
  
"Cloud..." Everything was black, "Wake up, Cloud..."  
  
"Wha-... Where...?" He groped around in the dark confused and lost, again in his mind.  
  
"Wake up sleepy head..." A pat on his head and a brush of a finger on his cheek, "It's already sun up silly..."  
  
Opening one eye, Cloud looked back into beautiful sea-green orbs. Quickly opening the other eye he looked over the new person in disbelief, "Aeries...?"  
  
"Who else, silly?" She stood over the groggy figure with a kind smile she was well known for.  
  
He could not believe his eyes. Before him stood Aeries in all her glory with that damn pink bow still puling back her hair. She looked like a seraphiem with the morning rays glowing upon her rose petal cheeks. He could not, for the life of him, hold back a small minute smile creaping up on his features. She held out a hand to help him up, and he took it cautiously, as if one touch would whisk her away from him again.  
  
"You okay Cloud?" She looked up at him, her smile radiant, "Your acting kinda... Weird... Haha.." Her laugh was a sirens call captivating Cloud so that all he could do was nod. "Good! Haha... Then you can help me pick flowers!" She strode out into the feild.  
  
Quickly following her, he began his search for the brightest and most beautiful flower in the meadow. Glancing aboiut, he spotted purple ones with white centers, yellow ones with long pestals, and a few red ones with brown and gold spots. There were ones with deep blue hues and ones with purples and pinks dancing together in a plain, yet intracet looking pattern. Even though he had no idea what all their names were, he knew that they were all special.  
  
Unable to locate a perfect flower he sighed and sat down content to watch Aires prance about for a while. Soon enough though, a butterfly landed on his knee and lazily moved it's wings of gold, bronze, and silver. Cloud watched as it flottered away once again to land only a few feet away on a gorgiouse lookig flower. The petals were dark pink and faded to white at the tips, reminding him of the pinks that made up Aeries's outfit. There were small silver dots here and there as well as silver pestals that looked similar to her staff. The perfect flower.  
  
He got up to pick the flower when a random thought hit him low in his gut. The thought of who he was with, and how impossibal it was. No, Cloud thought, there is now way this is fake. Everything is how it should be. He ignored the nagging thought as he walked to Aeries with his bundle of flowers and gave them to her, but skillfully keeping the pink one out of sight and hidden for later.  
  
Aeries looked up and smiled, "These are perfect Cloud!" Cloud smerked and placed his 'perfect' flower in her hair. "Thank you..."  
  
Cloud nodded then blinked as he was quickly embraced by the small white mage in pink. ((How ironic... Snickers)) All he could do was hug her back, hoping that it was the right thing to do.  
  
"Cloud..." Aeries pulled away and held one of his hands in both of hers. "Can we talk for a little while... I need to do something..."  
  
Cloud nodded and led her over to his tree from earlier. He couldn't understand the sudden mood change, but he did notice somthing very odd about the scenery. Strangly enough, the sky had begun to show signs of dusk and the pink hues danced with reds and purples once again. Cloud wasn't exactly sure how they managed to spend the whole day picking flowers, but he easily brushed it away as Aeries leaned in for another hug.  
  
"I wish that this moment could last forever Cloud..." She smiled to Cloud after her hug, but this time her smile was not radient, nor was it very happy.  
  
Cloud tilted his head then moved forward to lift her chin and smile, "If you want, we can do this again tommorrow..."  
  
Aeries's eyes were downcast at the mention of a tommorrow, but she soon looked up once more with tear strained eyes. "I'm happy I could spend this moment with you one last time, Cloud..."  
  
"What do you mean?" Cloud searched her face for any signs of mirth, to find that she was putting on a simple show, and that she would come back later to say 'Just kidding'. He never found that spark.  
  
Reaching up, Aeries took Cloud's face in her petit hands, "I came to tell you that I love you..." Cloud blinked and tilted his head to feel her hands upon him better. "And to say... Good-bye."  
  
Quickly wraping his arms around her in a tightening hug, Cloud held on like life depended on it. "No..." Cloud emersed his face in her brunnette locks, "You can't go..." He tightened his grip a little bit more, "Not again..."  
  
She let her arms wrap around Cloud's neck and let her tears fall into his collar bone. "I can't stay any longer..." The sky had become purple with the decending of the sun almost complete.  
  
All those years in SOLDIER and the countless battles in AVALANCE to harden a soul like his to neevr show emotion, betrayed him in those final moments. Cloud let out the tears he had been holding for so long. They trailed a slow mournful procession down his cheeks and into the mage's hair. "No...."  
  
Slowly, fireflies began to dance around the two figures bathing them in an ethril glow. The green light seemed to bind them both to an unspoken promise to never leave one another. Cloud refused to let Aeries go as she became more and more transparent in his arms. He wouldn't open his eyes to once again whitness the loss of his most beloved.  
  
In the final moments, Aeries took Cloud's face in her hands once more, and he opened his eyes to see her as a translucent spirit. He smile ever present on her face as her eyes danced with unshed tears and love for the one she couldn't have. The fireflies danced around her form and she was beautiful in Cloud's eyes.  
  
She leaned in once more as Cloud took her for one last embrace, as her body broke up into millons of small stars and began their acention to the heavens. Cloud looked skyward, following those small stars, hugging himself. "Why...?"  
  
Slowly his world darkened and he felt the slow tug of the darkness in his heart. He fell into the endless void of black once again, but this time he choose to fight. He would not loose, for he had promised revenge for his beloved, and he would not be lost before he accomplished it. Before him, a small light soon formed in the darkness of his soul. It slowly began to take the shape of wings to guide him back to the waking world once more.  
  
His eyelids cautiously opened to a dark world coated in life. The sun had sliped past the horizon long ago, and the owls and crickets sang their songs of good fortune and well being to the weiry traveler. Ahead of him danced fireflies and moths, encuraging him to fully awaken and gaze upon the 'perfect flower' growing in a small mushroom patch. He moved and shifted his gaze to the night sky as he spotted a strange grouping of stars that moved and glided around his view. He smiled as one star winked and flew across the night sky in a final fairwell. Cloud gave a small squeeze to a tattered peice of pink cloth in his hand. "Good-bye..."


End file.
